If I was pitching The Spider franchise in Hollywood I might say: He's
a superhero. Trapped in a horror film. Directed by John Woo.

Let's break it down.

Superhero. 1930's Pulp vigilantes were really the precursors of 1940's
comic book heroes. The Spider didn't take down common gangsters—he only got
involved when the criminal had a crazy name for himself like The Living
Pharoah, The Death Fiddler, or The Cholera King.

Horror Film. Things get pretty hairy in these stories, and downright
creepy. The Spider borrowed heavily from the "weird menace" pulps that were
inspired by the Grand Guignol theater. We're talking people roasted on spits in
store windows, art made of human bodies, oragnutans threatening rape, bat-men,
lepers, and miles and miles of dark caverns and spooky oriental passageways.

John Woo. The gunplay in The Spider magazine is at an operatic
level. It can only call to mind the slow-motion ballets of violence composed by
John Woo in his Hong Kong days or earliest Hollywood films. If you liked the
"bags of guns" ending of The Killer you will like The Spider.

So, Batman, with guns, vs. the Army of Darkness kind of gives
you the proper visual. But underneath the surface of apocalypse is a searing
emotional story too! In and around the toppling buildings of New York, and the
Death Rays and the Black Plagues, are people who feel love, loss, and betrayal—not just the stabbing heartbreak of a .45 caliber bullet. Richard Wentworth
and his friends pay an emotional price for their service to the ideal of
justice; And some pay the ultimate price.

This "emotional urgency" is what sets The Spider apart from other Hero Pulps,
and makes the novels so readable today. While heroes like The Shadow and Doc
Savage would glide through their adventures unmoved and untouched by the madness
around them, The Spider tried to show—for all its breakneck, fantastical
plotting—the real impact that a violent life of service has on the justice
figure.